


(Let's be) Better together

by Florchis



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Femslash February, First Dates, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Ino in a leather jacket should be a warning, Kissing, Leather Jackets, Long Live Feedback Comment Project
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-18
Updated: 2019-02-18
Packaged: 2019-10-31 03:26:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17841563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Florchis/pseuds/Florchis
Summary: Sakura doesn't know what to wear for her first date with Ino. Ino surprises her with her own choice.





	(Let's be) Better together

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this exclusively because I wanted Ino wooing Sakura in a leather jacket. 
> 
> Rated T for language.

Naruto is laying on her bed, head hanging down and eyes closed, and Sakura throws a blouse at his face for good measure. He was clearly on the verge of falling asleep and the surprise topples him down to the floor.

“Hey, Sakura-chan! That was uncalled for!”

He is rubbing his head to alleviate the pain from the fall, and Sakura looks at him with her hands on her hips, no sympathy whatsoever.

“Totally deserved. You came here to help me choose an outfit, not to take a nap on my bed!”

He jumps back on the bed, legs crossed.

“Actually, you lured me in telling me that you’d help me with my Psych essay. And now you want me to help you with an outfit and whatnot.” He pouts, and Sakura throws a sandal at him that he dodges promptly. It ends up on top of her bed table.

“You owe me from _years_ of copying my school homework, asshole!”

“Yeah, sorry to tell you, but that debt has expired.”

Sakura turns around to look at him with an open mouth, her reflection wearing black slacks and a purple, unbuttoned shirt that makes Naruto cringe.

“Oh my, when did you learn those big boy words, Naruto?”

Naruto throws back the sandal at her.

“You are so mean to me, Sakura-chan.”

She picks up the sandal, places it against her blouse, makes a grimace at her reflection and throws it back inside the closet. Barefooted, she plops down on the bed next to Naruto, who pats her hair awkwardly.

“Just so you know, the shoes are not the problem, that purple monstrosity is.”

“I know,” Sakura sighs, and turns her head to the side to rub her cheek against his leg. “You know I appreciate you, don’t you?”

Naruto beams down at her, and not for the first time, Sakura simultaneously mourns and cherish the fact that she is not in love with him; he is one of the most positive people in her life, and being in love with him could foster that influence, but loving him the way she loves him is also an infinite source of joy.    

“I appreciate you back, Sakura-chan.” She rubs her nose once again against his leg in acknowledgment, and just when she is opening her mouth to ask him if he already chose a topic for his essay, Naruto backstabs her, the little shit. “Who are you going out with, anyway?”

Sakura bites her lower lip, her heart pounding inside her chest. She considers telling him a lie or at least an evasive, but she doesn’t feel okay lying to him, and this is the kind of thing that is better told at once, like ripping a bandaid.

“Ino.”

Naruto frowns.       

“Why are you so worried about your outfit, then? Ino is just… Ino.”

Sakura rolls her eyes, trying to hide the anxiety that is making her pick at loose threads on her comforter.

“That’s why. Because Ino is… _Ino.”_ She puts particular emphasis on her name, but inflections usually fly over Naruto’s head, so she makes an extra head tilt for his sake. “She is special to me.”

Naruto opens his eyes big as plates.

 _“Ohhh.”_ He scratches his head, halfway between flustered and surprised. “Didn’t know you two where… _you know.”_

“We aren’t, we may, we will, urgh, I don’t know.” She covers her eyes with her hands. “We are not.”

“But you _want_ you two to be a thing.” There is a gentleness in Naruto’s voice that is usually reserved for her and old people, and Sakura doesn’t know how to process exactly the way that makes her feel. “That is why you care so much about your outfit.”

“Yeah.”

“Okay.” She feels and hears Naruto getting up from the bed, but she doesn’t uncover her eyes until she hears him rummaging through her closet, looking certain like he knows what he is doing. “Here. Wear this.”

* * *

Against all odds, apparently, Naruto did know what he was doing.

[The red sundress](https://www.google.com/search?q=red+sundress&client=firefox-b-d&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiF-e6C7angAhVlIrkGHdqDCIgQ_AUIDigB&biw=1366&bih=632#imgrc=JFEgluthcs-caM:) is comfortable and nice enough to make her feel pretty, but not that out there that it would make her feel self-conscious. It even allows her to put on a red hair bow, for old time’s sake.

She is putting on the last touches of a light makeup when the bell rings, and Sakura has to trip up Naruto to prevent him from opening the door.

“Ehhh, Sakura-chan! I was going to let your date in like a good roommate should!”

She knows him enough to know that he is not doing it with any malicious intention, only just badly-concealed curiosity, but still, she points to this room, unyielding, and Naruto goes there with his tail between his legs, which makes Sakura feel kind of bad, but not bad enough to regret her decision.

Especially when she opens the door and Ino is looking mouthwatering-hot in a leather jacket, tight jeans and her hair in the shiniest ponytail Sakura has ever seen. Add on top of that a carefully-put together bouquet of red chrysanthemums and Sakura could swoon.    

“Hey, apparently I picked up really well the color aesthetic of the evening,” Ino declares with a teasing glint to her eyes while she presses the bouquet into Sakura’s hands. Sakura rolls her eyes, but squeezes Ino’s hand in thanks and goes inside for a vase. “Is Naruto home?” Ino calls from the door.

“Shhhhhhh!” Sakura runs from the kitchen, a finger over her lips. One of the many things one learns how to do in Medicine School, apparently. “You will drag him out of his cave and he will start chatting nonsense and we are not gonna be able to leave, like, ever.”

Ino chuckles, and once Sakura is close enough, she grabs her wrist and pulls her closer.

“Just checking to know if I can do something before leaving.”

All the oxygen might as well have been pumped out of the room because Sakura cannot breathe. Ino is wearing a strong perfume, something heady and spicy, and that scent is the only thing that fills Sakura’s lungs.  

“Do what?”

“Do this.”

Maybe she was too busy staring at her hair and at the way her loose shirt allows her to see Ino’s collarbones and she wasn’t putting enough attention to anything else, because Ino is by her side in two seconds flat, one hand on Sakura’s jaw, the other against the wall to ease the shock of Sakura’s back against it.

Her lips are cherry red, and Sakura is floating like a dream while Ino kisses her with more sweetness than she was expecting. It is not the first time they have kissed: they grew up together, and they have played spin the bottle, and they have been drunk out of their minds together, and yeah, things happen. But they have also kissed with intention, last weekend when exams were over, and Ino convinced her to go to Sakura’s apartment building terrace to watch the stars together with a bottle of vodka and too many butterflies inside her stomach.

They have kissed before, but they are about to go on a date now, and this is one first that Sakura wants to treasure, her hands holding firmly Ino’s hips, while Ino strokes her thumbs against Sakura’s collarbones, their lips sliding together to the rhythm of a tune only they can hear.

If their previous kisses have been a pleasurable, tingling experience, this one can only be described as fireworks.

She kind of wants to forget about the date, drag Ino inside her bedroom and discover all the new ways in which her best friend can make her shiver. She is glad when Naruto comes out of his bedroom and shushes them away, claiming that they are ‘distracting’ and ‘can not be trusted with PDA’ (Naruto, of all people), and Ino holds her hand and leads her outside in the middle of a giggling fit.

She is coming to terms with everything she wants with Ino, on top of everything they already have, but there is no need to rush. They can explore her new needs after exploring this also new dating aspect.  

* * *

She has been kind of wondering about it, but it is not until they are walking on the pier- after bowling, milkshakes, a making out escapade on the diner’s bathroom and discovering that Ino’s hands feel much softer and more urgent on her hips than they ever felt on her own hands- that she asks about it.

“What is with the leather jacket?” She tugs at the lapels of the garment she is wearing over her shoulders. “I have never seen you wearing one before.”

Ino shrugs, and the movement makes the arm of Sakura’s hand she is holding make a little wave, so she makes it again, more pronounced, and smiles at the little movement.

“Knew you were gonna steal it from me, Forehead.” She is not looking at her eyes, but the tone is soft enough for Sakura to feel even fondness for the old nickname that used to be a reason for quarrels between them. “You look too pretty on your outfit, didn’t want to ruin your aesthetic by making you wear a shawl or fucking whatever.”

Sakura tugs on her hand until Ino looks at her, and then raises her eyebrows.

“There is another reason. Tell me.”

Ino scoffs, “Why would you say that?”

Sakura smiles, and that seems to soften Ino a bit.

“Because I know you.”

“Yeah, you do.” Ino stops to a halt and leans to give her a soft kiss on the lips. “What am I going to do with you, Sakura?”

_Love me. Love me, love me, love me._

She lets out a laugh, trying to sound casual and ignoring the pleading of her inner self, “For starters, tell me the truth?”

“But what if you don’t like it?”

Something ugly churns in Sakura’s stomach, and she tries to focus on the bluest blue of Ino’s eyes to wish the feeling away.

“More reason to tell me.”

“Fine.” Ino holds both her hands in between their bodies, and looks down at them before coming clean. “I have noticed that sometimes you feel… insecure, when we are out and about, even when we were just friends. And I like looking good _for me,_ and I wanted to look good _for you._ But you are amazing on your own right, Sakura. Smart, beautiful, funny. Strong. And if I have to take a step back to allow you to _see_ that, well, that is a sacrifice I am willing to make.”

Sakura feels choked up, and the only thing that blurts out of that ball of emotion sounds like an accusation, “Bold of you to assume you weren’t going to look gorgeous on a leather jacket, and a loose t-shirt. Because you do.”

Ino laughs, and despite how she feels about this whole thing, Sakura wants to swallow down that laugh and carry it inside her lungs.

“Fair enough. But I care a great deal about this. About you. I want you to feel safe and special, and I want this to work.”

Ino is concealing it pretty well, but Sakura knows her enough to notice the slight trembling on her voice and the quirk of her lip; Ino feels insecure about this too, and somehow that makes her stand straighter, carry her own shoulders with more confidence.

“I appreciate that. But _you_ make me feel like that, Ino. I don’t need you to change yourself for my sake. I don’t _want_ you to change for my sake.” She strokes the palms of Ino’s hands with her thumbs, and Ino gifts her with a tiny smile. “We are friends, first and foremost. And friends uplift each other, without putting themselves down.”

Ino nods once, and Sakura would give anything to see her eyes that are lost on the ocean.  

“Are you saying that you don’t want me to wear leather jackets anymore?”

“Do you want me to keep wearing my sundresses?”

That gets her wanted reaction, and Ino’s eyes looking over her entire body give her more shivers than the nightly breeze. Sakura pops a hip for extra effect.

“Of course.” Her voice is rough, and it makes Sakura’s mouth go dry. She takes a step closer, mostly out of instinct. She better get to her point quickly before they get… distracted.  

“Well, then I do want you in a leather jacket. But wear it because you want to. Wear it because you _rock_ it. Wear it to sweep me off my feet while wearing it. I want you in what makes you feel confident and amazing, too.” She strokes her thumbs up Ino’s arms and shoulders to her neck, and to the sharp lines of her jaw.

“That’s what I meant. I feel safe enough with you to show you this side of me. I want you to feel the same way.”

Sakura nods.

“Deal.” She pecks her on the lips, and it’s the first time she is initiating a kiss, so she tries not to blush. “We have had our share of crappy relationships. Let’s be better together, Ino.”

Ino kisses her deeply then and Sakura welcomes it, Ino’s warm breath of milkshake and lipstick making her feel alive.  

“Let’s”.              

**Author's Note:**

> This story is part of LLF Comment Project, whose goal is to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites:
> 
>   * Short comments
>   * Long comments
>   * Questions
>   * “<3” as extra kudos
>   * Prompts (here or on Tumblr)
>   * Image reactions
>   * Reader-reader interaction
> This author replies to comments (but it might take a while). If you'd rather not get a reply, please add *whispers* to your comment.



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